


calico

by patriciaselina



Category: Exit Tunes Presents ACTORS, Exit Tunes Presents ACTORS (Album)
Genre: Cat Herding, Childhood Friends, Five Plus One, Friendship, Gen, Karaoke, Lunch Break, Phobia, friends - Freeform, rare fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 15:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3574427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Before meeting Mike Enjouji, Chiguma thought that the stereotype of the cute petite <b>tsundere </b>character packing away twice their body weight in food was just that: a stereotype. Just something found in popular culture (read: the occasional dating sims), nothing that actually happens in, well, <b>real life</b>.</i>
</p><p>Five times Mike Enjouji doesn't tell the truth, and the one time he almost does.</p><p>(3/19/2015: Happy first anniversary, ACTORS series!!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	calico

**Author's Note:**

> Just BTW, title comes from 三毛猫, "mi-ke neko", which means 'calico cat', apparently. (Literal meaning: 'three-haired cat'.)

**I.**

He's on his way to swim club when he sees it.

Hozumi sees Enjouji crouched down, scratching a little cat under the chin, a little smile on the redhead's face as the kitten meows happily. Enjouji's got his other hand patting another kitten's head and there are upwards of ten other kittens by his feet - it's almost as if he were _swimming_ in kittens, which is a completely ridiculous mental image to have but it's still the one that Hozumi has, nonetheless.

"Hey, Enjouji. What are you doing here?" There's a startled shock going through the other man's shoulders as Hozumi says this, and had the person reacting that way had been, say, _Itto_ , Hozumi would've totally called him out on that.

"Oh, it's just you, Uozu," Mike says, standing up. The kittens scatter as he does so, but they're still at his feet, making him look like some obscure cat god, or something. "I was going to club, only these guys got in my way, so I got stranded."

"Well, at least they seem to get along with you, in any case."

"Just a lucky break, I think. I'm not really a cat person."

Later Hozumi'd hear from Itto, who heard from Akizuki, that Enjouji had gone missing for a good chunk of archeology club fieldwork because he'd somehow adopted an equivalent of three litters of kittens and ever since then, he's dedicated a good chunk of every break time nudging Akizuki into making cat food for all of them.

* * *

 

**II.**

Before meeting Mike Enjouji, Chiguma thought that the stereotype of the cute petite _tsundere_ character packing away twice their body weight in food was just that: a stereotype. Just something found in popular culture (read: the occasional dating sims), nothing that actually happens in, well, _real life_.

Now, though, here Chiguma is, having lunch with Kai and Mike in the courtyard. He's watching Mike go about shoveling in spoonful after spoonful of rice in his mouth like his entire life depends on whether or not he is able to finish off the entire _o-mori_ in ten minutes.

"You...really like Kai's cooking, don't you, Mike?" Chiguma ventures.

The last time someone had so much as _suggested_ that (Kai himself, some four days ago), Mike had dragged him by the ear for being 'a damned smug brat', or something; Chiguma does not want to experience how strong their soccer-playing friend is _firsthand_.

To Chiguma's thinly-veiled relief, Mike does not pull at his ear or do something equally as startling, but there's a glint to his eyes that says that if it were someone else _but_ Chiguma asking this particular question, he probably _would have_ had.

"I don't _like_ it all that much, nah," Mike grumbles back, which is kind of a hard point for him to be selling right now, when his bloodstream should be straight-out pumping Kai's peculiar blend of curry by now, with how much of it he's already gone through. "But I don't _hate_ it either, so, oh well, someone's gotta endure through it."

 _That's...a rather interesting way of 'enduring' something_ , Chiguma is about to say, but he bites his tongue. Best not to push his luck twice in a single scene - doing that would just be asking for a point deduction, he's played enough games to figure out that much, thank you.

"Enjoy your meal, then." Chiguma says instead, hiding a smile behind his drinking glass.

* * *

 

**III.**

"Enjouji."

"Yes, _sensei_ , is there something wrong?" Enjouji says, his fingers wrapped around the small shovel he has in hand. The kid's got a pleasant smile on his face, the kind he usually reserves for teachers and a good chunk of people (especially the ones not named, say, _Akizuki_ ), but his face is paler than Washiho's ever seen it, and his fingers are even _trembling_ a bit.

Washiho sighs. There's a headache about to come up soon, he's just about sure of it. "...mind telling me why you're standing on that bench?"

"I was...well, I had to, for fieldwork and. Stuff. Normal fieldwork stuff. Yeah, that sounds just about right. Don't mind it, _sensei_."

Washiho wants to tell him that archeology fieldwork has exactly nothing at all to do with looking up at the trees and pretending that there _isn't_ a caterpillar underfoot, but decides against it.

* * *

 

**IV.**

The sparkle blooming in Mike's eyes is the kind of thing their friends over at the Beautification Club would expect to find after a rather intensive session of window-polishing. Kai would take out his phone to snap a picture, only then he'd be down one cell phone and saddled with one furious redhead at his heels, so, no.

Mike narrows his eyes at him, as if he still stubbornly believed that all these years were not enough for Kai to figure out that, whenever Mike's eyes look like _that_ , he might as well should've been leaping to his feet in jubilation, with how happy he's feeling that very moment.

"Kai, if you're trying to hypnotize me with _that_ , it's not working." Mike deadpans, shrugging, as if his hands on the desk weren't twitching towards the direction of the proffered strap already. "Just thought you should know."

"Nah, that's not it. It's just that I bought one too many snacks and this fell out of one of the boxes."

Actually, said snack box was the same one Kai intended to bestow onto Mike after they're done with fieldwork. The box would be opened, sure, but the inner foil package wouldn't be. Kai actually never intended to eat that snack in the first place, when he bought it - that brand was _Mike's_ favorite, not his.

"Anyway. You want it, Mike-kun?"

Kai doesn't really know anything about this new keychain figure series, but what he does know is that this version has big sparkly eyes and the one he'd spotted Mike had hanging off his keys had smaller, slanted ones and if Mike hadn't had one already, he'd definitely appreciate a double.

"I guess if you're just gonna throw it out, I _could_ take it off your hands." Mike drawls, taking the wrapped strap out of Kai's hands, as if he's moving quickly before the other man changes his mind.

The next day, there are two small figures hanging off Mike's keys. It makes Kai want to smile, so he does.

* * *

 

**V.**

Hinata takes him out to karaoke, once. _Just_ once.

It's something that one wouldn't really notice, if one was not paying attention enough. But somewhere during the third or fourth time that Hinata ranks higher by two or five points, the veritable mountain of snacks they've ordered suddenly keep vanishing and vanishing, until all they've got left is a scant handful of chips and two half-finished drinks.

" _Enjouji-kun_ ," Hinata blurts out, soon after he puts two and two together, "You really don't like losing, do you?"

"Don't be _absurd_ , Mitsutsuka. What kind of person do you think I am?" Enjouji says, a polite smile carefully put in place.

The last handful of chips disappears shortly after Hinata scores 97 points to Enjouji's 93. Hinata doesn't actually _see_ his companion reach for the last snack remnants, but the telltale crunching sounds were kind of a dead giveaway.

* * *

 

**+1**

"You friggin' useless _dog_ , how the hell did you even get yourself sick?"

"I 'unno either, Mike-kun. I just _did_."

"And here I thought _guys like you_ didn't get colds." Mike grunts, squeezing out water from the towel before putting it on Kai's burning forehead. "Why'd you have to prove me wrong each and every damned time!?"

"Like when you said that only _kids_ had jam with their curry, and now you _can't_ have curry without having jam on it first?"

" _Ka-i_." Mike drawls, drawing out the two syllables of Kai's name. He only ever does that when he's pissed off, or embarrassed, but then again those two things usually happen at the exact same time, for him. Kai doesn't get to comment on this, though, because Mike shoves a thermometer in his mouth before he gets to say anything more. "Do me a favor and _shut the hell up_."

So he does, for the entire time that it takes for his temperature to register, but as soon as Mike takes the thermometer out Kai smiles and says, "Thanks for looking after me, Mike-kun."

It's not really _just_ Mike he's supposed to be saying this to - Chiguma went out to buy medicine, and so long as one put the fact that at least one of his hands would be glued to his portable game console aside, he'd definitely be a better choice of carer by a freaking _mile_ , the one Kai would be more thankful for - but underneath all the rage and bluster Kai knows his childhood friend is just a silly guy who languishes without proper attention.

"Someone _has_ to do that, I guess," Mike says, only almost tripping over his words _once_ in response to the sudden praise. "And, 'sides, when I first heard you got sick...I was worried as _heck_ about you, okay."

Kai blinks, once, twice. "Say that again?"

"--!! I _mean_ , of course I'd get worried - if you got your stupid ass sick, who's gonna bring me lunch? _Think_ about my situation a little, will ya? It's friggin' _annoying_!"

"Aw, I liked it better if you'd just stopped talking after the first half, y'know."

"...the second half was necessary, though. 'Cuz it explained the first half better."

Coaxing the truth out of Mike is a constant game of going one step forward, three steps back, but he's still Kai's very best childhood friend and finicky or not, honestly, Kai can't think of having him any other way.

"If you say so, Mike-kun," Kai concurs, still smiling to himself, even as Mike leans forward to flick him on his towel-topped forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> I did not intend for this piece to be as obviously Mike-centric as it is (it was supposed to be silly Archeology Club-centric all the way), but I have obvious biases and no other way to deal with them, so. Here this is and here we are. I'd wanted to write for the ACTORS series ever since I listened to the first drama tracks (these guys have good voices and look gorgeous but they are also complete and utter dorks, which was its charm point as far as I'm concerned). My first fic for this fandom was supposed to be something longer and/or less nonsensical, but I only found out about the anniversary celebration a few hours before the end of the day...
> 
> That being said, sorry for any OOC-ness you might see here! I was working on a deadline, lol.
> 
> I know in the first CD drama, Mike's first plan of action upon being saddled with a kitten he can't take care of is to hoist them off on unsuspecting Ryou with a goddamned smile on his face, but I thought the irony in having him actually _like_ kittens would be way too adorable to resist. His name kanji refers to _calico cats,_ for crying out loud.
> 
> I can't recall if Hinata and Mike have actually interacted, just the two of 'em, but Hinata really likes karaoke and Mike seems to like it to some extent too, so.
> 
> Thequip about 'certain types' was referring (Japanese?) belief that idiots won't catch colds, lol. Oh, Mike, you spectacular _tsundere_ mess. He actually calls Kai somewhere along the lines of 'you damned dog' numerous times, just btw.
> 
> My only OTP is still Mike x _o-mori_ servings of Kai's cooking, okay.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading this writing experiment of mine, and I sure do hope you like it!!


End file.
